"imported" trick or treaters!

[Kestrel]

I'm so tired of the carloads ... and this year, actual BUSloads of kids that come to my little street of 60 or so homes to trick or treat. (Local youth group actually brought two buses of kids!)

We're a fairly small neighborhood. In 1 1/2 hours, 6-7:30pm, we had over FOUR HUNDRED children. I like halloween; really I do. However, I'm not spending more than $100 a year on candy. I refuse.

Please, go to the mall if your neighborhood isn't any good. I'd like to see our local kids, not hundreds of others.


Edit to add:

Our total ended up being 620 or so before we ran out of candy, and bit after 8pm... yes, DH another 200 kids in half in hour after I went to get DS to bed. For that thirty minutes, he never even got the door closed, just kid after kid after kid.

A grand total of one thousand three hundred pieces of candy, two (they're small) per child. (minus what we ate)

Our local mall puts on a huge halloween event, with each store doing candy, plus games and contests. I wish more parents would use it.

Our weekly grocery budget is less that I spent on candy this year. Every year I buy several hundred more pieces than the year before, and every year I run out early. There has to be a line, somewhere!

[ThreeofUs]

We get this, too. Vanloads of kids dropped off by their parents at the end of our street. It's pretty sad....

[YouAreTheFocus]

This is good to know for the future, as I had wondered how people felt about non-neighborhood kids coming to their neighborhood. We live in a condo, and all of the buildings on our street (1 blk dead end) are either condos or apt bldgs. So I had assumed we would bring our kid elsewhere when he's old enough to ToT. But the mall? Hmm. I guess we'll have to move.

[hobie]

I would write a letter/call the youth group...that's really wrong, IMO.

[mom2binsd]

I remember this happening in San Diego, friends of ours moved into a lovely neighborhood called Pt.Loma (not an areat that had a lot of small children), their neighbors warned them that hundreds of kids from South East San Diego came to TOT, I worked in the South East and sure enough all the kids talked about their parents taking them to Pt. Loma to TOT...She spent a small fortune on candy and ran out most years!

I do understand though why the kids didn't TOT in their neighborhood, I worked there and the level of crime and overall 'gang' activities would have made me nervous. The kids told me that if they TOT in their neighborhood the big kids swipe their bags and scare them and their parents.

[SnuggleBuggles]

This is good to know for the future, as I had wondered how people felt about non-neighborhood kids coming to their neighborhood. We live in a condo, and all of the buildings on our street (1 blk dead end) are either condos or apt bldgs. So I had assumed we would bring our kid elsewhere when he's old enough to ToT. But the mall? Hmm. I guess we'll have to move.

I think that's different. One family, especially out with friends that actually live in that neighborhood, would be welcome in my book.

Beth

[DrSally]

This is good to know for the future, as I had wondered how people felt about non-neighborhood kids coming to their neighborhood. We live in a condo, and all of the buildings on our street (1 blk dead end) are either condos or apt bldgs. So I had assumed we would bring our kid elsewhere when he's old enough to ToT. But the mall? Hmm. I guess we'll have to move.

I think that's different too.

[DrSally]

We didn't have busloads (I can't imagine), but we did have out of the neighborhood older kids who then complained about the candy and were rude.

[wellyes]

I don't mind non-neighborhood kids, and I get why kids go where other kids go......... it is much more fun in a carnival atmosphere.

Having said that, I don't spend more than $20 a year, and I give glowy bracelets along with candy. $100+ is crazy!

[Dr C]

We have a lot of "imported" TOTers too. A few families wouldn't bother me at all, especially with young kids (in costume). But we have big hordes of older kids and barely-costumed teenagers.

We know all the kids who actually live in our neighborhood and they all TOT fairly early. This year, by about 7:30 pretty much all the neighborhood kids had come and gone and all we were getting were the imports. It was around that time that we ran out of candy and I just turned the lights off and didn't feel bad at all.